coughing/choking in sleep

My son is 8 weeks old. It seems like almost every night he wakes up with a quick coughing fit that sounds like he is choking. It's loud enough to wake me and my husband and scares me each time. It jolts me awake and I jump up to make sure he's okay, and he is. He has reflux, but he sleeps elevated in the Fisher Price Rock and Play Sleeper. He was on Zantac but it seemed to be doing nothing for him. We gave him rice formula, but it hurt is stomach. We gave him gripe water and he hated it. We just switched him to Similac Sensitive. Does anyone know if this coughing/choking fit part of the reflux or something different? Any advice what I should do for it? We have a 2 month checkup next Tuesday. Should I be calling the doctor before that?

Comments (4)

Yes, the coughing/choking is a major sign of silent reflux. Zantac is a worthless drug for most babies as the majority of them develop a tolerance in less than a 10 days. Sounds like he needs a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) read up about all the different reflux meds at www.refluxrebels.com before you go in!

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Amy ~ LovingmyDH, 2 y.o. "monkey" & *3 angels*

"Having a place to go is home, having someone to love is family, having both is a blessing."

Poor baby!!! I could have written your post several months ago! My LO slept in the Rock N Play for the exact same reason! She would cough/choke all night long and scare the crap out of me. She was mostly a silent refluxer and would cough/choke when trying to swallow the reflux back down. I will say though that even after we got her on a great dose of a PPI and she was HAPPPPPY...she still would choke in the middle of the night.

It was only within the past 4-6 weeks that the episodes started to lessen...mostly because we stopped feeding her in the middle of the night and we JUST finally felt comfortable moving her to her crib last week! (So far so good!!!)

ITA with the other posters to read up about PPIs and educate yourself before visiting her doctor. NO compounds! Good luck to you!

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Amy

Mommy to two former MSPI girls...still battling reflux with the youngest.